Where table tennis bets land in New Zealand, and what the odds really mean

Updated October 2026

Licensed

Available in US

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18+ Only

Snapshot date: October 30, 2026 · Checked against the Racing Industry Act 2020 (as amended in 2025) and the Department of Internal Affairs guidance.

The first thing to know about table tennis betting in New Zealand in 2026 is not about table tennis. It is about who is allowed to take your bet. Since 28 June 2025, when section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 came into force, only TAB NZ — operating through its two online brands, TAB and Betcha — may lawfully offer racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand. That single fact changes the shape of every other question a bettor asks: which markets to look at, which odds to compare, what to do when a match is being played live, what happens if a dispute arises. The rest of the page works through those questions, in that order.

How the odds on a table tennis match are built

Every price a bookmaker quotes already carries a deduction. That deduction is the margin — the slice of every dollar bet that the bookmaker keeps on average, no matter who wins. It is what makes a bookmaker a bookmaker rather than a referee. Once a reader sees it, no price on the page can be read innocently again.

What a price on a table tennis match actually says

A two-way market — player A to win, player B to win — is the cleanest place to see it. If a bookmaker quotes both players at decimal odds of 1.90, the implied probabilities are 1 ÷ 1.90 = 0.5263 for each, or 52.63% apiece. Add them and the total is 1.0526, or 105.26%. The extra 5.26 points are the bookmaker’s margin: for every 100 units bet across the market in the long run, the bookmaker expects to keep about 5.26 and return about 94.74 to winning customers. The same gap shows up in a decimal price of 1.85 against 1.85 — implied probabilities of 54.05% each, total 108.11%, an overround of 8.11% and a margin of 7.5% — and the gap widens as the price shortens on one side.

For table tennis, this matters more than it does for a slower sport. Matches are short — best of five or best of seven games, first to 11 points — and bookmakers reprice between points when they offer live markets. A reader who looks only at the pre-match headline line and never at the live margin is reading a different number than the one they will actually pay.

Handicaps, totals and the bets that wrap several legs together

A handicap in table tennis is a way to back a weaker player at better odds, or a stronger player at shorter odds, by giving one of them a games head start. A line of +1.5 games on player B means that bet wins if B takes the match or loses by only one game; a line of −1.5 games on player A means A must win by two games or more. The handicap shifts the implied probability, which shifts the price, which shifts the margin in the same way a straight winner market does.

Totals, sometimes called over/under, ask whether a stat — total games in the match, total points in a game — will be over or under a posted line. A 3.5-games line on a best-of-five match gives two outcomes (under = a straight-games win, over = a match that goes at least four games) and the margin is read off those two prices the same way it is off any two-way market.

A combination bet, called a multi in New Zealand usage, multiplies the odds of each leg into a single price. A two-leg multi at 1.90 and 1.90 pays 3.61 if both legs win, and the effective margin of the combined bet is higher than the margin of either leg on its own, because the bookmaker’s edge compounds with each leg. A same-game multi, where all the legs come from one match, is the same arithmetic on the same match.

Reading a price before placing the stake

The plain arithmetic is: for a single bet, return = stake × odds; net profit on a winning bet = stake × (odds − 1). At 1.90, a stake of NZ$10 returns NZ$19 — NZ$10 profit on top of the NZ$10 stake. At 3.61 on a two-leg multi, the same NZ$10 returns NZ$36.10. The stake is what the bettor risks; the return is what they get back if the bet wins; the profit is the difference. A price of 1.01 returns NZ$10.10 on a NZ$10 stake, with a NZ$0.10 profit if it wins — the kind of price that is hard to lose but pays almost nothing for the risk.

Where table tennis fits inside the tournament calendar

Table tennis is one of the smaller sports on a New Zealand sportsbook by handle, but it runs almost every day of the year, and that gives it a rhythm a reader needs to know before sizing a stake.

The competitions that drive the schedule

The international calendar is anchored by the ITTF — the International Table Tennis Federation, founded in 1926 and the body that runs table tennis at the Olympics since 1988. Its World Championships, World Cup and the WTT (World Table Tennis) tour events are the high-turnover events where the strongest players meet most often, and where bookmakers offer the deepest market lists and the most live betting. Continental championships, the European Championships and the Asian Championships, sit beneath the world events and produce matches the smaller tours do not. Domestic leagues in Europe and Asia — the Russian, German, French and Chinese leagues — fill the calendar between ITTF events with club fixtures played most weeks.

A tournament like an Olympic Games or a World Championships pulls volume up sharply while it runs. Outside those weeks, the depth of the market list on a table tennis match tends to be thinner than the depth on a football match at the same bookmaker — fewer totals markets, fewer handicap lines, less in-play coverage. A reader who bets table tennis regularly learns to spot the weeks when a tour event is running, and to adjust the stake when the markets thin out.

Why the sport suits live betting

A table tennis game is over quickly: the first player to 11 points wins a game, with a deuce rule that sends it to whoever first leads by two once both players reach 10. A match is the best of five or seven games, and most professional matches finish inside an hour. That gives the in-play markets several settling events per match — the next game, the match winner after N games, total games, a handicap after N games — and bookmakers reprice after almost every point.

The service alternates every two points, with a single-point serve each once both players reach 10. That rhythm is what a reader needs to understand to read a live price: a long rally that ends with the receiver holding serve is a smaller swing than the same rally late in a game, when a held serve can be the game. Live table tennis markets are where the line between price and information moves fastest, and where the bookmaker’s margin compounds fastest as well.

The physical spec that sits behind the lines

A table tennis table is 2.74 m long, 1.525 m wide and 76 cm high, with the net 15.25 cm above the playing surface. The ball is 40 mm in diameter and weighs 2.7 g. These numbers matter when a bookmaker offers markets on serve speed, rally length or any other in-match event a reader might want a price on; they also fix what a televised match shows, and which in-play markets a bookmaker can settle automatically. A reader who knows the spec knows what the picture is showing.

The bookmakers a New Zealand reader can compare

The choice on the New Zealand market is unusually narrow, and the way the page is built reflects that.

The table that puts the field side by side

A New Zealand reader comparing where to bet on table tennis sees two kinds of operator: the two TAB NZ brands that may lawfully take bets here, and the offshore bookmakers a New Zealand reader can still reach but cannot bet with lawfully. The table groups them by what each one’s own terms say about table tennis coverage, in the language the operator uses.

The two rows at the top are the only lawful options for a person betting from New Zealand. The remaining eight are brands a New Zealand reader will encounter online, and the law treats them as operators that may not lawfully serve New Zealand — even where the brand itself is licensed in another jurisdiction and offers table tennis markets with depth the lawful provider cannot match.

How to read the table’s middle column

“Not licensed in New Zealand” is not a comment on the brand’s licence in the country where it is licensed. BetAlogo holds whatever licence its own site states; RTbet holds a Curaçao licence; Sportaza holds an Anjouan licence; Rooster.bet holds a Tobique Gaming Commission e-gaming licence; Thunderpick holds a Curaçao licence. The column states a different fact: none of those licences gives a provider the right to take bets from people in New Zealand. The Department of Internal Affairs told unlicensed providers to withdraw with immediate effect when section 74AAA took effect, and the law puts liability on the offshore operator rather than on the player. The table is not telling a reader to use one brand over another. It is showing what each operator is, in the language of the New Zealand statute.

How to read the third column

The third column is what the operator’s own terms or homepage say about table tennis, in the form the operator publishes. Where the column says nothing about table tennis — Telbet, BetNinja, Rooster.bet, Glorion — the operator’s own page does not mention it, and a reader who wants to know what the brand offers on table tennis has to check the brand’s own sportsbook menu directly. A column of dashes tells a reader less than that sentence; the column says what each operator does say about table tennis coverage, and stops where the operator’s own materials stop.

The New Zealand betting market at a glance

The market looks small until you read it against what came before it.

Why there is only one lawful provider

Until 2025 the New Zealand betting market was run under an older framework that left room for overseas operators to take bets from New Zealand residents, and a number of them did. The Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 closed that room: section 74AAA now says no person other than TAB NZ may offer racing betting, sports betting or other racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand, regardless of where that person is resident or incorporated. The change took effect on 28 June 2025, and the Department of Internal Affairs told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect.

There is no application route for another licence because the statute does not allow one. There is no register of licensed bookmakers because there is only one lawful provider. The framework is unusual: most regulated markets license a small number of operators from a longer list of applicants, and a reader used to a UK or a European comparison page will read the names of eight offshore bookmakers on the table above and assume they are licensed here in some form. They are not.

TAB NZ, TAB and Betcha: one operator, two brands

TAB and Betcha are the two online brands of TAB NZ. The body corporate is TAB New Zealand, and the operational side is run by Entain under a 25-year agreement signed in 2023, with a 50/50 share of gross profits and at least NZ$150 million a year flowing to TAB NZ for the first five years. Entain also made a one-off NZ$100 million payment to the racing sector as part of the deal. The point for a reader is that TAB and Betcha are not rival bookmakers competing for the same New Zealand punter: they are two front doors to the same pool of odds, two apps run by the same operator group, and a stake on one settles the same way a stake on the other acts.

The two brands look different in their published coverage. TAB’s app covers horse and harness racing, rugby union and rugby league and other sports pre-match and live, with Trackside live race streaming and an in-app bet slip, plus racing form, Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools, racing form and a wallet for deposits and withdrawals. Betcha covers horse, greyhound and harness racing alongside rugby, NRL, MMA/UFC, NBA, NFL, tennis, cricket, football, motorsports and esports. A reader who wants table tennis looks at both menus — the same bookmaker runs them, but the menus are not identical.

What is and is not a betting product under the law

The Racing Industry Act 2020 covers racing and sports betting. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 covers online casino gambling — slot machines, table games, live casino and the like — and does not give TAB New Zealand any additional right to offer sports betting. TAB New Zealand may apply for a casino licence under that act, but a casino licence and a sports-betting monopoly are separate permits and the law treats them as such.

Greyhound racing is closing in stages from 1 August 2026, and from that date an offshore operator may not take bets on greyhound races from a person in New Zealand either. TAB NZ does not offer bets on politics or novelty markets, and a reader looking to bet on an award show or an election outcome through TAB NZ will not find it.

There is no statutory per-bet cap. The maximum stake, the minimum stake, the maximum payout and the maximum free-bet winnings are all operator terms, not statute, and a reader who wants to know the cap on a TAB NZ market reads the betting rules.

What the operator is allowed to ask of the bettor

To open a TAB NZ account a bettor must verify a New Zealand address and identity. The age for betting is 18 — the statute says betting under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020 — and the TAB NZ app on the New Zealand App Store carries a 17+ age rating while stating that customers must be 18 or over to bet. Land-based casino age is 20; the two ages are not the same and a reader who mixes them up finds a casino door closed on a 19-year-old who is allowed to bet online.

There is no statutory rule on payment methods for betting accounts — no ban on cards, bank transfers, prepaid cards or otherwise. What payment methods a TAB NZ account accepts, and what limits apply to each, are operator-level terms and are not the same as what an overseas operator offers. The Department of Internal Affairs warns that overseas operators may sit in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins; the warning is about overseas operators, and a TAB NZ account has the protections of a New Zealand-regulated operator behind it.

What the law requires a New Zealand bookmaker to do for the player

A licensed bookmaker does more than quote odds. The New Zealand framework expects TAB NZ to keep the risks of problem and underage gambling minimised, and to pay for the harm-minimisation work out of its own margin.

The safer-gambling tools in the TAB NZ app

TAB NZ’s app lists deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion among the safer-gambling tools a customer can switch on inside the app. A deposit limit caps what an account can load in a chosen period; a time-out suspends the account for a chosen window; a self-exclusion closes the account for a longer or indefinite window. An exclusion applied to one TAB NZ brand applies to the other, because they are two accounts in the same operator group, and a self-excluded customer is not meant to be able to reopen on Betcha after closing on TAB.

The app carries the free Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 655 and a text line on 8006, and it points customers to Safer Gambling Aotearoa for face-to-face support. The helpline and text line are free to call and free to text, and they sit inside New Zealand.

The levy that funds the harm-minimisation work

TAB NZ pays a Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74% — in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028. The levy is paid by the operator, not by the customer, and it funds the Ministry of Health’s gambling-harm services, the helpline and the public-health work the Gambling Act 2003 asks the Ministry to do. Offshore operators supplying New Zealand residents pay an online gambling duty — 12% of profits since 1 July 2024, rising to 16% from 1 January 2027 — but a duty being payable does not make an offer lawful. The duty is paid on profit; the law is about who may take the bet at all.

What the advertising rules say

The Gambling Advertising Code, run by the Advertising Standards Authority, applies to betting advertisements. Ads must not target children (under 14) or young people (14 to under 18), must not encourage harm and must be truthful, with the terms available where a price is mentioned. The Code judges audience by context, appeal and expected audience, with 25% or more of the audience counting as significant where accurate data exists. There is no New Zealand equivalent of a “whistle-to-whistle” ban for betting advertising, and the rule that does exist is the ASA Code rather than a statute.

Because only TAB NZ may offer betting to people in New Zealand, the Department of Internal Affairs reads the prohibition as covering promoting or taking such bets for another operator. How DIA treats betting affiliates has not been publicly established. Bonuses and free bets are TAB NZ’s own promotions on its own terms; no New Zealand rule on bet-bonus size or wagering terms was found in the materials reviewed, and a reader who wants to know what a TAB NZ bonus bet costs reads the promotion’s own terms.

Live betting and cash-out on table tennis

The single feature that changes a table tennis bet most is the live market, and the single feature that lets a reader close that bet before the final point is cash out.

How live table tennis markets work

A live market is one a bookmaker opens while the match is being played and reprices after almost every point. The two most common live markets on a table tennis match are the next-game winner and the match winner after N games, with a totals market on the number of games in the match a step behind. The bookmaker’s margin is what it keeps on each reprice, and a bookmaker that is slower to react to a long rally leaves money on the table for the reader, while a bookmaker that is faster leaves less.

A reader who bets live is also betting the bookmaker’s repricing model. The model takes the live score, the serve rotation, the pace of recent points and the in-running statistics, and turns them into a price the reader sees. The price is fair on average if the bookmaker is honest and the market is liquid, but the price is also the bookmaker’s edge, and a reader who treats every live market as a fair price is paying the margin on every bet they place.

Cash out, in plain words

Cash out is a feature a bookmaker offers on selected markets that lets a reader close a bet before the final outcome is known. The bookmaker offers a price — usually lower than the maximum the bet is expected to pay if held — and the reader takes it. On a TAB NZ multi, the cash-out value is the bet’s expected return discounted for the risk still on the slip; on a single bet, it is the current fair price of the bet at the live margin.

Cash out is not free money and it is not a refund. The bookmaker is buying the bet back at a price the bookmaker sets, and the reader is selling it at that price. A bet that is expected to pay NZ$100 if held might cash out at NZ$60 with the match still live; the reader is locking in NZ$60 instead of risking the NZ$100 for a chance at the full payout. The right time to use cash out is when the live picture looks worse than the price the bookmaker is offering, and the wrong time is when the picture looks better — in which case holding the bet represents the cheaper option.

Why the limits on cash out matter

Cash out is offered on most pre-match markets on TAB NZ, but not all, and the bookmaker can suspend cash out at any time when the live price is moving quickly. A reader who wants to cash out a multi on a table tennis match finds that the value moves with every point played, and the price the reader sees is rarely the price the reader accepted a few seconds earlier. The right way to use it is to set a mental price — the value at which the bet is worth selling — and let the live price come to it, rather than chasing a moving target.

The offshore operators a New Zealand reader encounters describe their cash-out features differently. Sportaza offers cash out before an event or market is finalised, on a list of markets that excludes some in-play markets. Thunderpick offers a cash-out feature on selected markets. RTbet, Rooster.bet and Glorion do not name cash out on the materials reviewed. The features exist in different shapes, and a reader who wants to know what a brand offers reads the brand’s own terms rather than a comparison page.

Predictions and the limits of strategy

The reason a betting guide has a section on predictions is so the page can be honest about what a prediction is and is not worth.

What a “tip” can and cannot do

A table tennis betting tip is a forecast of the outcome of a match, made by someone who has watched the players, watched the form, watched the head-to-head and reached a view about who is more likely to win. The tip names a player and a price, and a reader who follows it bets on that player at that price. The tip is a probability estimate, not a guarantee.

The market price already includes the tipster’s view, and the bookmaker’s margin on top of it. If 1000 punters all saw what the tipster saw and bet on player A, the price on player A shortens and the price on player B lengthens, and the tip is in the price before the tipster published it. A tip has value when the tipster sees something the market has not priced in, and the price the bookmaker is offering still reflects only what the market has priced in. The window is narrow, and most tips close it before the bet is placed.

Bankroll and staking

A bankroll is the amount a punter has set aside for betting, and a staking plan is how they divide it into bets. The simplest staking plans stake a fixed percentage of the bankroll on each bet — 1% or 2% — so a losing streak does not blow the bank and a winning streak does. The right percentage depends on the punter’s appetite for risk, the size of the bankroll and the price they usually take; a reader who bets short-priced favourites will tolerate a larger percentage than a reader who bets long-priced underdogs.

A bankroll is not the punter’s total wealth, and a reader who bets rent money is not betting a bankroll. The deposit limit on the TAB NZ app is the tool the operator offers to keep the bankroll honest, and the punter who sets the limit before placing the first bet is doing what the operator cannot do for them.

Strategy without a tip

The honest strategy for a punter who bets table tennis is to know the sport and know the price. Knowing the sport means knowing which player serves better under pressure, which player handles the deuce rule well, which player has the longer rally pace, which player has the shorter. Knowing the price means comparing what one bookmaker offers against what another offers, and not betting when the bookmaker’s margin is too wide for the bankroll to absorb.

The rest of strategy is discipline. A reader who bets every match they see burns the bankroll on the matches where the bookmaker’s edge is widest. A reader who bets only when they have an edge and skips the rest keeps more of the bankroll for the bets that matter.

The bookmakers in detail

The ranking in the plan is one operator group followed by another. The first two are TAB NZ’s brands; the remaining eight are offshore operators a New Zealand reader will encounter online. The reviews describe what each operator’s own terms say, and they judge what each one is worth to the reader the page is written for. The two groups are not merged.

TAB

TAB is one of the two online brands of TAB NZ — the same operator group as Betcha, with TAB New Zealand as the body corporate and Entain running the operational side under the 25-year partnership signed in 2023. The brand is the one most New Zealand punters already know: it has the retail outlets, the racing form, the Blackbook and Jockey Challenge tools, the Trackside live race streaming, and the wallet for deposits and withdrawals.

What TAB offers on table tennis is what its app says it offers — horse and harness racing, rugby union, rugby league and other sports pre-match and live, with table tennis on the menu where the operator lists it. Live betting is listed in the app. The deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion tools are operator-level and apply across both TAB NZ brands. The 17+ App Store age rating sits beside the 18-or-over-to-bet statement, and the difference is the standard one between an app store’s content rating and an operator’s terms.

The case for TAB is that it is the only lawful option for a New Zealand punter, with the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, the regulator’s oversight and the operator’s own complaints process behind it. The case against TAB is the case against any monopoly: a single operator cannot offer the price competition that ten operators can. A punter who wants the deepest market list and the tightest margin looks offshore and accepts what the law and DIA’s warning imply; a punter who wants the lawful option and the New Zealand consumer protection bets on TAB and pays the monopoly’s margin.

Betcha

Betcha is the other online brand of TAB NZ — same operator group, same partnership with Entain, same body corporate, same New Zealand harm-minimisation framework. The brand is newer in market terms: the Betcha app was first released on 6 August 2024, against TAB’s longer history. The published coverage leans more towards the sportsbook side of the business: horse, greyhound and harness racing alongside rugby, NRL, MMA/UFC, NBA, NFL, tennis, cricket, football, motorsports and esports.

What Betcha offers on table tennis comes through the sportsbook menu rather than a racing-only app, and a reader who bets table tennis and a reader who bets rugby league end up on the same app. The safer-gambling tools, the deposit limits, the time-outs and the self-exclusion apply across both TAB NZ brands, and an exclusion on Betcha is an exclusion on TAB as well.

The case for Betcha is that it offers a more sportsbook-shaped product than TAB does, with a design that fits a reader who bets more sports than racing. The case against Betcha is the same case as against TAB — a single operator group cannot match the price competition of ten. The verdict is that Betcha is worth opening if the reader wants a sportsbook-first New Zealand app, and is not worth opening in addition to TAB because the operator is the same and the prices are the same pool.

BetAlright

BetAlright is an offshore brand whose sportsbook covers football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, with a Live Betting section and a Virtual Sports section. The brand names no licence that applies in New Zealand; the Department of Internal Affairs’ position is that the brand is not licensed to take bets from people in New Zealand under section 74AAA.

The case for BetAlright is the case for any offshore bookmaker with a deep sportsbook: a market list that covers more sports than TAB NZ’s, a live betting section, a virtual sports section, and the kinds of markets TAB NZ’s sportsbook does not always list. The case against BetAlright is the legal one: a New Zealand reader using BetAlright is using an operator that may not lawfully serve them, with no New Zealand complaints route and no New Zealand harm-minimisation framework reaching the account. A punter who keeps the offshore book as a price reference rather than as a place to stake keeps the legal and consumer-protection cost off the bet.

Thunderpick

Thunderpick is an esports-first brand: the published coverage is CS2, League of Legends, Dota 2 and Valorant, with the sportsbook offering cash-out and markets from the Champions League to the NFL. The brand holds a Curaçao licence (OGL/2024/677/0722) under Paloma Media B.V., which gives no such right under New Zealand law.

The case for Thunderpick is the esports-first menu and the cash-out feature on selected sports markets, which give the brand a sharper shape for a reader who bets esports and a casual sportsbook on the side. The case against Thunderpick is the same legal case as against any offshore book, and the smaller published coverage of table tennis specifically. A reader whose interest is esports-led and table tennis incidental is the one Thunderpick fits.

Telbet

Telbet describes itself as a crypto casino and sportsbook, with a welcome offer of a 200% match up to 1 BTC plus 50 free spins and a small free-bet token on its Russian-language site. The brand names no licence that applies in New Zealand, and the crypto-nativity of the product sits outside the New Zealand payment-method framework.

The case for Telbet is the crypto-first product for a reader who wants to fund an account in crypto rather than in fiat, and the welcome offer on the casino side. The case against Telbet is the absence of any New Zealand licence, the absence of a New Zealand complaints route, and the absence of the harm-minimisation framework that sits behind TAB NZ. A reader looking for a crypto-funded bookmaker is the fit, with the same caveat as for the rest of the offshore group.

BetNinja

BetNinja advertises a casino welcome of EUR 1,000 plus 100 free spins and a sportsbook welcome of a 100% match up to EUR 100 on the first deposit, with the operator holding a licence from the Union of the Comoros. The brand names no licence that applies in New Zealand.

The case for BetNinja is the matched-deposit welcome on the sportsbook side, which is the kind of headline number a reader used to a UK or European comparison page will see and a New Zealand-licensed operator cannot match because there is only one of them. The case against BetNinja is the same legal case, plus the smaller depth of the table tennis market the operator’s own homepage describes. A reader looking for a matched-deposit welcome often chooses BetNinja, but accepts the offshore cost.

Rooster.bet

Rooster.bet is a sportsbook with Live, Sports Promotions, Results, Schedule, E-sports and Predictions sections and odds in six formats. The brand holds a Tobique Gaming Commission e-gaming licence (No. 0000002) under Novatrix SRL, which gives no such right under New Zealand law.

The case for Rooster.bet is the breadth of the sportsbook — Live, Promotions, Results, Schedule, E-sports and Predictions — and the six-format odds display, which is the kind of small product detail a reader who likes to flip between decimal and fractional pricing will appreciate. The case against Rooster.bet is the absence of any New Zealand licence and the absence of a New Zealand complaints route. Readers who value sportsbook breadth and multi-format odds often find Rooster.bet fits their needs, despite the offshore caveat.

RTbet

RTbet is a sportsbook that covers football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, with live betting and virtual sports. The brand holds a Curaçao licence, which gives no such right under New Zealand law.

The case for RTbet is the published coverage that names table tennis specifically, alongside live betting and virtual sports — a menu closer in shape to TAB NZ’s sportsbook than the menus of Telbet, BetNinja or Glorion. The case against RTbet is the same legal case, plus the smaller depth of in-play coverage on a niche sport the operator’s own homepage names. RTbet is often chosen by readers who prefer a table tennis menu that reads like the lawful provider’s, though the offshore caveat remains.

Sportaza

Sportaza is a sportsbook that offers cash out before an event or market is finalised, a Bet Builder where one void leg voids the slip, multiples, Asian lines and interval markets in 1, 5, 10 or 15 minute ranges. The brand holds an Anjouan licence (ALSI-202606064-FI2), which gives no such right under New Zealand law.

The case for Sportaza is the feature list — cash out, Bet Builder, Asian lines, interval markets — which is the deepest feature list on the table, and the closest match to the shape a reader used to a UK or European bookmaker expects. The case against Sportaza is the same legal case, plus the smaller depth of table tennis specifically on the operator’s own page. Readers who prioritise the cash out and the Bet Builder typically select Sportaza, acknowledging the offshore caveat.

Glorion

Glorion is a sportsbook with pre-match and live betting, virtual sports, horse racing and esports, with markets grouped into popular, niche, indoor and outdoor sports plus entertainment events such as award shows and elections.

The case for Glorion is the breadth of the market menu and the inclusion of entertainment events, which is the only one on the table that names an entertainment category. The case against Glorion is the same legal case, plus the absence of any table tennis coverage in the operator’s own homepage materials. The fit is a reader who bets across entertainment markets as well as sports, with the offshore caveat.

How the page puts a number on the bookmaker’s edge

The arithmetic behind the price is a useful calculation for a punter, and it is worth a worked example.

The two-way market at 1.90 / 1.90

Take a two-way market priced at 1.90 against 1.90. The implied probability on each side is 1 ÷ 1.90 = 0.5263, or 52.63%, and the two probabilities sum to 1.0526. The bookmaker’s margin is the excess over 1.0000 — that is 0.0526, or 5.26% of the total amount bet across the market. The payout share is 1 − 0.0526 = 0.9474, or 94.74%.

Read the other way, the market returns NZ$94.74 to winning customers for every NZ$100 bet across both sides, and keeps NZ$5.26 as gross profit before operating costs. A 5.26% margin is a typical band for a well-priced two-way market on a liquid event; an 8% margin on a 1.85 / 1.85 line is closer to what an offshore bookmaker might offer on a niche table tennis fixture where the liquidity is thin and the bookmaker’s edge is wider.

The right way to read a margin is as a band rather than a single figure. The 1.90 / 1.90 line at 5.26% is one example; the 1.85 / 1.85 line at 8.11% is another, and a real market will fall somewhere between them depending on the event, the bookmaker and the time of day. The number is never the whole story.

How the margin moves with the price

A price of 1.50 on a heavy favourite implies 1 ÷ 1.50 = 66.67%, and a price of 3.00 on the underdog implies 33.33% — a total of 100.00%, which is the limit case of a zero-margin market. The bookmaker rarely sits at exactly 100%; a real bookmaker is always above 100%, and the gap between the actual total and 100% is the margin.

As the price on the favourite shortens (1.40, 1.30, 1.20), the implied probability rises (71.43%, 76.92%, 83.33%) and the implied probability on the underdog falls. The total of the two implied probabilities grows — at 1.20 / 5.00 the total is 0.8333 + 0.2000 = 1.0333, an overround of 3.33% and a margin of 3.2% — or shrinks, depending on how the bookmaker adjusts the underdog’s line. The bookmaker’s choice is between a wider margin on the favourite’s side and a tighter margin overall, and the right choice for the bookmaker is the one that balances the book.

A reader who watches only the favourite’s price sees a line that moves; a reader who watches both sides of the market sees the bookmaker balancing the book as the live picture changes. The second reader is the one who understands what a margin is.

Why a multi’s margin is higher than the per-leg margin

A multi’s margin compounds. Take a three-leg multi at 1.90, 1.90 and 1.90. Each leg’s implied probability is 52.63% and each leg’s margin is 5.26%. The combined implied probability, before any compounding, is 0.5263 × 0.5263 × 0.5263 = 0.1458 — the fair probability of three independent events all happening. The combined price is 1 ÷ 0.1458 = 6.86. A bookmaker offering 6.86 on the three-leg multi is offering a fair price with zero margin. The bookmaker actually offers something lower — 6.40, say, against 6.86 fair, which is a margin of (1 ÷ 6.40 − 1 ÷ 6.86) ÷ (1 ÷ 6.40) = 6.71% on the combined bet. The 5.26% per-leg margin has compounded into a 6.71% combined margin.

A multi’s edge over the punter grows with each leg, and a punter who treats a multi as a way to multiply a stake is paying for that multiplication in margin. The price is higher; so is the cost.

Reading the page against what is on it

A page that lists ten bookmakers and one of them is the only lawful option is a page about a market, not a comparison. The verdict the page offers is the verdict a reader in New Zealand can act on: TAB and Betcha are the lawful option, with the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, the regulator’s oversight and the operator’s own complaints process behind them; the offshore brands are the price-comparison reference, useful for sizing a market and useless for placing a stake without accepting the legal and consumer cost. The arithmetic on the margin is the second verdict: a bookmaker’s edge sits inside every price, and the edge is what makes a bookmaker a bookmaker.

The page does not name which player wins the next match, because no source establishes the outcome of any specific upcoming table tennis match. A reader who came here for a tip leaves with a framework instead, which is what the page can honestly offer.

Frequently asked questions

How does a punter bet on table tennis?

A punter opens an account with a New Zealand-licensed bookmaker — TAB or Betcha — verifies a New Zealand address and identity, sets a deposit limit, and chooses a market from the sportsbook menu: match winner, handicap, totals, next game, or a multi. The bet is a stake against a price, the bookmaker holds the stake, and the bet settles when the match does — at the price for a winning bet, at zero for a losing one. The same shape works on offshore bookmakers, with the legal and consumer-protection costs that the New Zealand framework places on those operators.

How does a punter win at table tennis betting?

The honest answer is that no system can promise them a win, because the bookmaker’s margin is in every price and the outcome of any one match is uncertain. The closest a punter comes to winning is to find a price the bookmaker has mispriced — a player, a market or a moment where the live line lags behind the live picture — and to bet that price while it lasts. That is the work of watching the sport, watching the price and staking only when the edge is real. Anything that promises a “sure” bet is selling what the sport does not offer.

What does a stake at a price pay out?

For a single bet, return = stake × odds. A NZ$10 stake at decimal odds of 1.90 returns NZ$19 — NZ$10 of stake returned plus NZ$9 of profit. For a two-leg multi at 1.90 and 1.90, the combined price is 3.61, and the same NZ$10 stake returns NZ$36.10 if both legs win. The stake is what the punter risks; the return is what they get back; the profit is the difference. The arithmetic is the same for any market on any bookmaker, and a punter who knows it does not need a calculator at the betting window.

Which bookmaker may take a sports or racing bet in New Zealand?

TAB NZ, operating through its two online brands TAB and Betcha. Section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, in force from 28 June 2025, makes TAB NZ the only provider lawfully offering racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand. There is no licence route for another bookmaker, and there is no register of licensed bookmakers because there is only one. The Department of Internal Affairs told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect when the change took effect.

What is a bookmaker’s margin and how does it appear in the odds?

A margin is the slice of every dollar bet that the bookmaker keeps on average, no matter who wins. It appears in the odds as the gap between the sum of the implied probabilities and 100%. A two-way market priced at 1.90 / 1.90 has implied probabilities of 52.63% on each side, summing to 105.26% — an overround of 5.26% and a margin of 5.0%. A market priced at 1.85 / 1.85 sums to 108.11% — an overround of 8.11% and a margin of 7.5%. The wider the margin, the more the bookmaker keeps, and the harder it is for the punter to come out ahead.

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